The doctors are in

Unprecedented scientific, medical, technological and even financial resources are available for human health in many parts of the world. Yet, we entered the new millennium with an unprecedented 30-fold gap between those who live and die marginalized from health services and opportunities for a dignified life, and those who count on health as their birthright. In this context, health equity looms among the biggest challenges facing twenty-first century societies. The seminal 2004 study by the Joint Learning Initiative, followed by the 2006 World Health Report and more recently by the Global Health Workforce Alliance's Scaling Up, Saving Lives point to human resources as key to solving this global crisis: getting enough of the right people in the right place doing the right things at the right time. Such champions of health equity allude to the kind of physician needed within a broader strategy to train and retain a global health workforce capable of guaranteeing basic health care to everyone. They are joined by value-driven medical education reformers who advocate return to a more service-oriented ethic for medicine. Together, the two streams are producing a powerful current, as socially responsive medical education joins the broader drive for socially equitable health policy. Yet, there is much work to be done to muster the political will needed to change the course of an entire profession and medical training with it.